BhutanTimes

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eKaaSel to Address Grievances

Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay said that the online system is a platform for people to express their dissatisfaction, problems and to provide feedback related to public services offered in the country.

eKaaSel launched for people to express their grievances.(Source: http://www.kuenselonline.com)

To address the grievances of people accessing public services offered by the various ministries, an online system called eKaaSel was launched in Thimphu on 27 Dec 2017.

eKaaSel launched for people to express their grievances

Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay said that the online system is a platform for people to express their dissatisfaction, problems and to provide feedback related to public services offered in the country.

He said that the Government to Citizen (G2C) services is one of the most important services available but at times, people were unable to avail of these services.

“When people had difficulty in availing of services or needed immediate service, or citizens who were not satisfied with the services, there was no platform to lodge their grievances and problems.”

The Officiating Chief of Public Grievance Services and Redressal Division (PGSRD), Lungten Zangmo said that people contacted the division through facebook, e-mail and would also visit the offices concerned when they had grievances and feedback to be made.

Some citizens are still not aware of the existence of eKaaSel

She said that the system went live from December 11 in 2017 but people were not aware of the system. Service delivery is incomplete without the redressal system and several reformative actions were taken to make the online system simple, effective and user-friendly, she said.

Currently, there are about 135 public services offered online, 120 Internet services and 15 mobile services.

An official from PSGRD said eKaaSel would provide a platform for transparency in the system, and that the service was open as it could be accessed from anywhere provided that the user has access to the Internet.

“The system has features that would enable grievances or feedbacks to be forwarded through email notification to the offices and includes reporting feature in the system.”

eKaaSel can be accessed from the citizen portal at www.citizenservices.gov.bt and to avail the service, a citizen is required to submit verification details. The citizen would have to provide a mobile number so as to be informed on the successful submission of the grievance.

A citizen can also track the status of the submission and a user guide both in English and Dzongkha was developed to assist users.

Procedures of the eKaaSel

Once a citizen lodges a grievance, it would be received and assessed by the PGSRD office after which it would be either notified to the citizen or to the head of the agency concerned. The grievance would then be further forwarded to the head of the department.

Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay said that all complaints would reach the Prime Minister’s office and that a time period would be set within which the complaint related to a ministry would be resolved.

The status of the grievance would be updated through SMS notification to the citizen if the grievance were redressed, he said.

Press release from the division stated that the launch also aims to encourage citizens to participate in public service delivery initiatives towards making public services citizen-centric, and to strengthen accountability in public agencies.

It also stated that the division would create periodic reports on the system usage and applicability.

By Rinchen Zangmo (This article has been edited for the New Bhutan Times)